Gordon H. Clark - William Tyndale - The Southern Presbyterian Journal 18

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Gordon H. Clark - William Tyndale - The Southern Presbyterian Journal 18

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  • William TyndaleBy Gordon H. Clark, Ph.D.

    William Tyndale was born in 1483. He won areputation for scholarship at Oxford; then he went,to Cambridge to meet Erasmus, who had just com-pleted his Greek New Testament. This he examinedas a curious piece of scholarship, but to his surprise

    |he found in it a message that stirred his soul.

    The priests did not share his enthusiasm, and oneday as he was arguing with them about the teachingsof the New Testament, a priest said, "We had betterbe without God's laws than the pope's." In indigna-

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    tion Tyndale replied, "I defy the pope and all hislaws; and if God spare me I will one day make the

    \ boy that drives the plough in England to know moreof Scripture than the pope himself."

    First Tyndale applied to the bishop of London forpermission to translate the New Testament. Althoughthe bishop was a patron of learning, he had no in-terest in the Scriptures. He refused assistance. Tyn-

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    dale none the less came to London and hid in thehouse of Humphrey Monmouth, a merchant, wherehe quietly began his work. But he could see menaround him being arrested and executed for readingcopies of Luther's writings, and he decided that Eng-land was not a safe place to work on a much moredangerous book, the New Testament.

    After one year in London, he went to Hamburg,Germany, where in poverty he worked for anotheryear and finished the translation. He took his manu-script to a printer in Cologne. He had kept hissecret well and now hoped to see the divine Bookscattered in thousands of copies throughout England.But a priest named Cochlaeus had overheard some ofthe typesetters talking. He was suspicious, got themen drunk, and discovered that the New Testamentwas actually on the press and nearly finished. Thepriest went immediately to the magistrates and de-manded that the material be seized. Someone senta message to Tyndale, who hurried to the shop,gathered up all of the manuscript he could find, andfled.

    He escaped to Worms, where enthusiasm for Lutherwas at its height. Here the New Testament was com-pleted and printed. This was the first printed NewTestament in England. Knowing that Cochlaeus hadwarned the authorities, and that therefore shipmentsto England would be closely watched, Tyndale hadmade his books small in size. He hid them in balesof cloth and in sacks of flour. Every secret way thatcould be thought of was used to get the books intoEngland. And in spite of the vigilance of the priests,and in spite of some shipments being discovered,many of the Testaments were safely delivered andwere scattered far and wide through the country.

    If Wickliffe's handwritten copies had been trouble-some enough, imagine the great commotion thatthese books caused. Hundreds could be printed inone day; the cost was low; nearly everyone could

    afford to buy one. The English people would soonknow what the Bible said. The priests redoubledtheir efforts and discovered thousands of copies.These were solemnly burned at St. Paul's Cross inthe city of London. It was called "a burnt ofteringmost pleasing to Almighty God." But still otherthousands of Testaments replaced those that hadbeen destroyed.

    It soon became clear to the church officers thatthey could not prevent these Testaments from beingdistributed in England. Then a bright idea struckthe bishop of London. He asked Augustine Paking-ton whether it might be possible to buy up all thecopies on the continent before they were shipped toEngland. Pakington, a merchant who traded inAntwerp, was a secret friend of Tyndale. He toldthe bishop that he could probably buy the edition,if the bishop would be willing to pay the cost. Andso it was arranged.

    Pakington went to see Tyndale. Master Tyndale,he said, I have found a purchaser for your entireedition. When Tyndale learned that the purchaserwas the bishop of London, he was perplexed, forhe knew that the bishop wanted to burn the Testa-ments. Well, replied the shrewd merchant, what ofit? You will make a profit and then you can printanother edition.

    The bishop got his Testaments, but a corrected andnewly printed edition began to appear in England inquantities.

    Since it was clear that printed books could not bedestroyed like handwritten manuscripts, Bishop Ton-stal preached a sermon at Paul's Cross asserting that hehimself had found two thousand errors in Tyndale'stranslation. Sir Thomas More said, "To study tofind errors in Tyndale's book were like studying tofind water in the sea." Tyndale challenged him tomake public these thousands of errors. More wasfinally forced to narrow his charges down to a half adozen words. But the attacks of More and the bishopwere effective, for they had control of the pulpits,and few people ever heard Tyndale's replies. Yet,as more and more friends were made for the Refor-mation, the Testament was more widely defendedagainst these attacks.

    The Bible was now so well received in Englandthat neither king nor pope could stop its progress.But Tyndale himself did not live to see its greatertriumph. In 1534 Henry Phillips, a supposed gentle-man, and Gabriel Donne, a monk of Stratford Abbey,were employed to lure Tyndale to destruction.

    The two of them, Donne disguised as Phillips' ser-vant, went to Antwerp. They found Tyndale livingin the home of a merchant named Pointz. Bv en-gaging manners and by pretended friendship,Phillips won Tyndale's confidence, who first invitedhim to dinner and later persuaded Pointz to let him

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  • lodge in the house. When he had learned the detailsof Tyndale's life and knew where he kept his papers,Phillips cautiously investigated the possibility of hav-

    ing the Antwerp authorities arrest him. Finding lit-tle encouragement there, he persuaded the court ofBrussels to make the arrest.

    But even the imperial officials from Brussels hesi-tated to arrest an Englishman in the free city ofAntwerp, where numerous English merchants formeda strong party in favor of the Reformation.

    After a time it became necessary for Pointz to leaveAntwerp on business. Phillips thought that thiswould make it possible to seize Tyndale secretly andspirit him out of the city. Stationing the officers out-side the door, he went in and asked to borrow somemoney. Tyndale loaned him the money and invitedhim to go to a restaurant with him for dinner. Asthey were going through a narrow passageway out ofthe house, the officers seized him and hurried him

    off to the dungeon of Vilvorde castle, about eighteenmiles from Antwerp.

    When Tyndale's friends learned of this kidnapping,they tried to effect his release. It was in vain.

    As winter came on, Tyndale in misery and ragsbegged the governor to release to him some of hisown clothes to protect him from the cold and damp.For two years the now aging and frail Tyndale man-aged to exist in his dungeon. Then he was taken tothe court at Brussels to face a charge of heresy. Hetook this occasion to give his judges an exposition ofScriptural truth such as they had never heard before.But they had come to condemn, not to listen.

    On Friday, October 6, 1536, Tyndale was led forthto die. Before they strangled him and burned him,he prayed, "Lord, open the King of England's eyes."Thus perished, a victim of priestcraft, William Tyn-dale, translator of the New Testament.

    Four Kinds of SoulsBy Rev. James O. Reavis, D.D.

    In the "parable of the sower," Jesus describes fourkinds of soil to illustrate differences in the moraland spiritual capacities of human souls. The parableteaches that of four kinds of souls or people, who hearthe Word of God, three of these kinds of hearers donot understand the Word and "it becomes unfruit-ful."

    Hearing is a great responsibility and blessing. Jesusexhorts His disciples to "take heed what they hear.""Unto you that hear shall more be given." Mark 4:24.

    "To the diligent student of divine truth, more ofdivine truth shall be revealed. The slothful studentshall not only learn no more, but shall even forgetwhat he already knows." The disciples came andsaid to Jesus: "Why do you speak to them in par-ables?" He answered: "To you it has been given toknow the secrets of the Kingdom of heaven." Mat-thew 13:10, 11.

    "Blessed are your eyes for they see and your earsfor they hear."

    "Truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteousmen longed to see what you see and did not see it,and to heat what you hear and did not hear it."Matthew 13:16, 17. "And He told them many thingsin parables saying: 'A sower went out to sow, andas he sowed some seeds fell along the path and thebirds came and devoured them.' " Meaning: "Any-one who hears the Word of the Kingdom and doesnot understand it, the evil one comes and snatchesaway what is sown in his heart. This is what wassown along the path." Matthew 13:19.

    "Other seed fell on rocky ground where they hadnot much earth; and immediately they sprang up,since they had not depth of soil. But when the sunrose they were scorched. And since they had no root,they withered away."

    Meaning: "But he that received the seed intostony places, the same is he that heareth the Wordand anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not rootin himself, but endureth for awhile; for when tribula-tion or persecution ariseth because r-f the W^rH im-mediately he falls away." Matthew 13:20,21. "Of Hisown will begat He us With the Word of Truth".Jas. 1:18. "Lay apart (aside) all filthiness and super-fluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness theengrafted Word which is able to save your souls".Jas. 1:21. "Be ye doers of the Word and not hearersonly". Jas. 1:22.

    "Other seed fell upon thorns; and the thorns grewup and choked them."

    Meaning: "As for what was sown among thorns,that is he who hears the Word, but the cares of theworld, and the deceitfulness of riches and the lust ofother things, enter in, choke the Word, and it be-cometh unfruitful." Matthew 13:18, 19.

    "Other seed fell on good ground and brought forthgrain, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty."

    Meaning: "But he that receiveth into good groundis he that heareth the Word and understands it;which also beareth fruit; and bringeth forth some anhundredfold, some sixty, some thirty." Matthew 13:23.

    Christ and all true Christians are "sowers." Theseed stands for Christian truth, "the Word of thekingdom," "the Word of God." The ground: i.e."the souls of men." "Souls are born again not ofcorruptible seed, but incorruptible, by the Word ofGod, which liveth and abideth forever." I Peter 1:23.

    Here then, as we have seen, are four kinds of soulsdescribed in the parable of the sower. Viz:

    1. The Unreceptwe.Likened to the hard beaten soil of the pathon which the sown seed fall, to lie on the

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